I VOLTI DEL CAOS. Per la storia linguistica di un’idea

This paper aims to outline the relationship between the different meanings of the word chaos in the history of the Italian language. Chaos is a word of Greek derivation which is largely used in the nowadays language to express the meaning ‘extreme confusion, disorder’. Other meanings of the term reflecting its Classical – Christian origins (such as ‘abyss, deep’, ‘indistinct mass of matter’ or ‘hell’) are as well attested in the linguistic history of Italian. Particular attention is paid to evaluate how chaos was used in the Middle Ages in comparison to its current usage.